Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town (GBA)
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is the eighth installment of the Harvest Moon ''series. It was developed by Marvelous Entertainment Inc., and released in Japan on April 18, 2003. Natsume handled the English translation and released the game on November 17, 2003, for North America. The European version was released by Rising Star one year later on March 5, 2004 Story You first arrived in Mineral Town as a child visiting with his parents during a fishing trip on the beach. Your character wanders off, then arrives at a farm. The owner, an old man, asks you why you are crying and looks in your bag for your parent's phone number so he can call them. When your parents arrive, they thank him and he offers them a place to stay. During your stay at the farm, there are several cutscenes, one in which you meet a young girl near the mountains but her identity is never revealed. When you are leaving, the farmer tells you that he gets lonely sometimes and asks if you would write him, and you say yes. When you return to the farm as a young adult, Thomas, the mayor, gets angry and yells at you for trespassing. He reveals that the old man had died some time before and had left the farm to you. The player character then accepts the old man's will to run the farm. Changes from 'Harvest Moon: Back to Nature ''Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town is the remake version of '''''Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, with some changes: *There is no evaluation of your progress of work in the game (meaning you cannot be overthrown from the town and you could play it as long as you want). *The identity of the young girl who appears in the cutscene during your childhood will not be revealed. *New layout, map and town. *A secret bachelorette to court and marry. *The absence of some festivals such as the Goddess Festival and the Tomato Festival *The absence of some villagers: Kano and Louis and a new character is introduced, Kappa. *Completely new heart events and random events. *Improvements in some features: mailbox system, tool leveling, added cooking recipes, church confession and others. *Replacement of greenhouse in favor of three vacation houses. *Unlockable special features when connected to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. Connectivity to''' Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life'' ''Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town ''can connect with '''''Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life via a Game Boy Advance (GBA) - Gamecube (GC) link cable, which is sold separately. New features will be accessible once the games have been connected, i.e. new music records, new cooking recipes, appearance of two guest characters from Forget-Me-Not Valley (Van and Ruby) to Mineral Town, unlocking one of the vacation house (Seaside Cottage), and many more. Gameplay *Menu & Controls *Gamecube Link-up *Tools *Stamina *Mineral Town *Characters *Calendar, Festivals & Events *Crops *Animals *Mining *Fishing *Cooking *Wild Items *Marriage *Shopping *Upgrades *Power Berries *Gems *Houses *Shipping Item List *Mini - Games Trivia *Kappa, the male counterpart of the Harvest Goddess, makes his second appearance in this game (disregarding the girl version of the game, Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town). The first was in Harvest Moon 64. *The game introduces new special eligible bachelor/ette system which presents in later Harvest Moon games. *''Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town ''can only be connected to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. It makes both of them the only games which require two specific ''separate titles of '' ''games to connect (disregarding the following sequels). Connecting to any other 'Harvest Moon' franchise will not unlock bonus content. *Both Mineral Town and Wonderful Life series are the only games that have unlockable bonus features in both games when they are linked up. It's a different case in 'Harvest Moon DS' (and its girl version, 'Harvest Moon DS Cute''') where when it's connected to the Mineral Town games, the DS games receive bonus features while the GBA games do not receive any additional features (one-way connection). Category:Series Category:Game Boy Games